For Your Consideration

Ender's Game, Guacamelee! and LastPass

BOOK | In the future, armies of intensely trained, highly intelligent children will be used to fight off encroaching aliens that lurk in the far reaches of the galaxy. That's what the future is like, anyway, in the classic 1985 sci-fi novel Ender's Game by award-winning writer Orson Scott Card. The movie version of the book, starring Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield, comes out Nov. 1, so there's still time to read it before seeing the film. While there's been some controversy surrounding the upcoming film release due to Card's vocal opposition to the legalization of gay marriage, the book is worth the time. An entertaining read, with a carefully developed plot and characters, the novel also explores more complex topics.

GAME | When you've invested several hours in a videogame, it's always good when it continues to pleasantly surprise, with an evenly paced story line and lots of challenging, yet not overly difficult, puzzles along the way. The indie developers at Drinkbox Studios did all that and more with their 2-D, action puzzle-platformer Guacameelee!, released for PC earlier this summer (it's also available for PlayStation). With single and two-player co-op play options, Guacamelee! sends gamers, playing as brave luchadores, on a quest to save a kidnapped maiden while solving puzzles to gain important new skills for combat and maneuvering. Set in a small Mexican village, Guacamelee! uses elements of traditional folklore to shape its plot and inspire its vivid, colorful art style.

SERVICE | These days, you can never be too careful when it comes to protecting sensitive, personal information on the Internet. Security breaches of websites happen just about every day, but unless it's a huge bank or corporation, we don't always hear about it. Situations like this make it all the more important to not use the same usernames and passwords for multiple online accounts. That's where a handy little service called LastPass comes in. The online password manager has subscribers create an account, using a secure, complex password that only you know — not even LastPass' server does. Then as you log in to all your sites, LP prompts you to generate and save randomized, encrypted passwords. Install a LastPass web browser extension or the Android/iOS app to access your passwords anywhere, anytime.